If you’re looking for a job, chances are you’re going to need advanced knowledge of programming and programming languages. If you’re looking to get hired, more advanced knowledge is definitely a good thing to have. If you’re looking to figure out what will make you the most money, then advanced knowledge is, well, a no-brainer.
When you write software, you typically use source code as your main source of information. But what if you’re making a program that requires access to some information that isn’t available when the program is written? That’s when you need the C.A.P Theorem.
Do you know what the C.A.P. theorem is?
If so, congratulations; you are in an extremely competitive field! The C.A.P theorem is a theory about the nature of concurrent programming. It originally states that, in order for programs to be functionally correct, concurrent programs must correctly: 1) partition their data, 2) serialize access to their shared (global or shared) data, 3) and prove that these data access rules are consistent. As you can imagine, in today’s technology world, this is a pretty difficult thing to do.
The C.A.P. theorem is a kind of holy grail in software development, and its name is often used to describe a concept that is incredibly difficult to understand and explain. The theorem itself is a simple statement, but its meaning can be elusive, and the information surrounding it is even more difficult to find. So, let’s take a look at the C.A.P. theorem and try to understand it.
C.A.P. acronym stands for Consistency, Availability, and Partitioning. The rules are intended to be simple, straightforward, and easy to remember. They are often seen to provide a way to estimate test coverage.
Since you’re probably familiar with the term C.A.P. theorem, you might think the concept is quite simple. It states that in order for a distributed system to achieve practicality, it must be partitioned among two or more entities, and that communication between these entities must also be partitioned. The theorem is named after the first three of these requirements.
- Consistency
Consistency is one of the most important concepts in software development. It can be defined as ensuring that the application does what it is supposed to do in each and every release. This is what makes it possible to build a robust software product with minimal effort. The C.A.P. Theorem is an important theorem in software engineering, developed by Donald Ervin Knuth. It states that if a program’s requirements are expressed in the form of axioms, then the resulting system has a consistent structure. This theorem implies that a program’s structure depends only on its design and not on the input it receives.
- Availability
The availability is the trickiest concept to understand in computer science and is the one most people seem to be confused about. Most programmers think that it means something similar to the way they use the word “available” to describe devices that are connected to the Internet. For example, if I ask you to define the availability of a device, you might say that the device has an Ethernet port and is connected to the Internet. But the availability of a device is not the same thing as the availability of the device to do something. For example, I could make a portable hotspot that is always connected to my laptop, but if I plug it into a different laptop, I can’t get online.
- Portioning
The C.A.P Theorem applies to C and C++ programs that are written to take advantage of object-oriented programming techniques. It states that programs must be “partitioned” into modules of functionality that are called “classes.” The C.A.P. Theorem defines the relationships between the classes and how they are related to each other.
At first, the C.A.P. Theorem for Programmers seems like a complex problem that can only be solved by a computer, but actually, it is a very simple theorem, which can be understood by humans, too. It is a theorem that deals with the concept of the “conceptual model,” a.k.a. the “blueprint” of the system. It can be summarized as: “The central idea behind the C.A.P. theorem is that a software system, which makes understandable assumptions, is more robust than one that only makes assumptions (i.e., doesn’t state them explicitly).
In order to write a program, you need first to make a choice about how to describe it. However, you can make one more choice: you can structure your program to make it easier to understand and maintain.
